The Death of Apollo
by Jason Thompson
Summary: Lee's been grounded for life and Kara is left to pick up the pieces.


**The Death of Apollo**

A Battlestar Galactica (2005) Fan-fiction Story

Author: Jason Thompson

August 23, 2006

Disclaimer: Once upon a time there was a guy he wrote a story with characters and settings he didn't own, but he put a disclaimer on his story and that made it a little less illegal. Galactica is owned by Universal, Sci-fi Channel, Glen A Larson, David Eick and Ronald D Moore.

Category:AU; L. Adama/Kara, some Kara/Karl friendship, some Billy/Dee/L. Adama, some L. Adama/W. Adama/Kara.

Spoilers: Through 2x17 for sure.

Warnings:

Summery: Lee's been grounded for life because of the shooting and Kara is left to pick up the pieces.

Rating:

Distribution: Ask First.

Notes: AU from Sacrifice on, Lee was shot but not by Starbuck.

Dedication: Dedicated to the usual suspects; Genova aka Schweet, Bri, Mary, Duchess, Dale, Blaire, Red, Stone Cold, Ice Wing, Arashi, Aslan, Vega, Tony D, Jen Zimmer, Louise, Sairs, and Queen Angel who have allowed me to bounce my ideas off them, and Krac, cause she has the evil bunny slippers.

**The Death of Apollo**

_Pegasus Raptor 718 _

_Lt. Richard "Buster" Bayer Piloting/ Lt. Lyla "Shark" Ellway ECO _

_En route from Daru Mozu to Pegasus_

Kara was in the midst of the recruit profiles she'd been gathering all day; she was trying to put together another crop of Nuggets to start training on the Beast starting next week. She wasn't really concentrating too seriously, she was more concerned with Commander Garner, she'd dealt with some assholes in her career but Garner was on the cusp of leapfrogging even Tigh to the top of her list.

She didn't relish the idea of begging Garner for bunk space for the next ten weeks to get twenty-five nuggets' going, as well as hi-jacking Showboat and Whiplash from Stinger to help train them but she'd have to first thing in the morning.

She made some notes on an application and prepared to move to the next when Ellway broke the silence. "Go ahead Pegasus." Kara watched the ECO press her headset to her ear and nod, "Copy that, Hoshi. Stand by." She turned to Kara, "Call from the Bucket for you sir."

The blonde narrowed her eyes slightly at the slight to the ship she loved but let it slide, she stood up and picked up the spare headset handing off the ECO station and put it to her ear. "Put them through Hoshi."

Hoshi acknowledged and after a brief pause, the gravely voice of Admiral Adama found her ear, "_Starbuck?_"

She smiled slightly, "Affirmative Actual."

"_I think you need to get over here. There's a problem I need you to take care of._" His voice sounded decidedly uncomfortable.

Kara knew it wasn't good, to pull her back from the Pegasus so soon after transferring her over… A sick feeling in the pit of her stomach had her wondering if… "Sir? May I ask…"

Adama's voice cut her off, "_I'd prefer not to discuss this over the wireless, I will debrief you on arrival. I've already informed Pegasus Actual that I'm redirecting your flight. You're cleared for immediate landing._"

"Copy that Actual, I'm on my way." She pulled the headset away from her ear and turned towards the pilot, "Buster, we're being redirected to Galactica, Admiral's orders."

Buster flipped a few switches and pulled back on the stick to swing the ship around, "Copy that." Buster then went about contacting the LSO to get his approach vector.

&&&&&&&&&

It was almost twenty minutes later before Kara was able to disembark the Raptor on Galactica. She tucked the reports under her arm and stepped off to find a slightly odd duo of Helo and the Chief. True, they had set their differences concerning Boomer aside months ago, but to see them together was still odd.

She gave the pair a perplexed grin, "Helo, Chief, what's going on?"

They exchanged awkward expressions before Helo said, "We're supposed to take you to the Admiral. Something happened…" Tyrol coughed and they traded that look again. "_Is_ happening… in the Ready Room… actually. I mean…"

Tyrol frowned, "We'd really rather the Admiral told you in private… it's a-"

"-Sensitive situation, Kara." Once again a shared look and this one set her on edge. Something was wrong, seriously wrong.

She nodded, "Okay, let's go see the Old Man." They crossed the hanger deck quietly and were halfway down the corridor before Kara realized someone was missing. "Where's Apollo?" Tyrol cleared his throat and flushed while Helo stared intently at the palm of his right hand. They didn't have to say anything, whatever was wrong Lee was in the middle of it. A deep frown marred her features and she picked up the pace of her strides. She was half a second from sprinting to the Admiral's cabin, "Right."

He'd been injured severely three weeks ago on Cloud Nine during a weekend pass when a woman took hostages. He'd been meeting with Dee, and Billy showed up. Kara herself had been on her way to the ship for her weekend pass when she'd been delayed by a problem between Sweetness and Duck. She ended up piloting Adama over to try and negotiate with the woman when something happened.

No one had been quite sure why or how, but firing started and Lee had been trying to pull one of the terrorists off Billy and ended up being shot in the left shoulder and loosing quite a bit of blood before slipping into a coma for three days.

Lee had spent two weeks in Medical, Kara had visited as often as possible but she'd been forced to take over Lee's duties while he was injured. Still, her visits afforded her a front row seat for the falling out between Lee and Dee, their flirtation came crashing to a halt when a petulant Lee said that he wouldn't have even been there if she could be faithful to her boyfriend. Her ears still ached at the thought of the woman's shrill voice as she screamed at him until Cottle threw her out of Sickbay.

Before she was sent over to Pegasus yesterday to begin gathering a new crop of Nuggets she remembered Lee telling her he should be visiting Cottle in the next few days to hopefully get cleared for active duty.

She cut her thoughts short as they entered Adama's cabin. They found him at his desk, the top two buttons of his blue tunic unfastened and his glasses in his free hand, he was in the midst of a wireless call. He looked at them and pointed to the couch near his painting of the Battle of Molecay. She sat down on the couch while Helo and Galen stood to the side of the couch. "I'll call back Madam President, Captain Thrace is here." For just a moment, Kara noticed a gentle expression cross his features as he hung up his headset.

The expression was quickly swallowed by a severe expression as he stood up from his desk and picked up a glass of whiskey. He seemed older and frailer as he crossed the room to take a seat next to her on the couch. He took a drink a scowled into the glass for a long moment. It reminded her somewhat of the night he'd asked her to teach Basic Flight again. If this was anything like that conversation, she knew she would enjoy this one even less.

He downed the remainder of his drink then said, "I'm going to have Captain Case and Lt. Katraine take over Basic Flight, I've already transferred Kat to Pegasus to co-ordinate with Showboat."

She squeezed her hands tightly into fists until the nails bit into her flesh, "May I ask why, sir?"

Adama cleared his throat but refused to tear his gaze from the bottom of his tumbler, "I'm also promoting Helo to Captain to take over Lead Pilot duties here on Galactica." He finally looked at her with a stony expression, "I didn't want it to be this way, but congratulations Kara, you're the new CAG."

'Lords of Kobol, why do you keep doing this to people like Lee?' She frowned and looked down at her clenched fists, "May I ask _why_, sir?"

He cleared his throat, "Captain Adama had his physical with Dr. Cottle this afternoon, and the news wasn't good. The range of motion in his shoulder has suffered a permanent loss."

She lifted her chin, she had to look Adama in the eye when she asked the next question, "How much of a loss?"

He held her gaze for a tense moment, the news clearly affecting him as more than Lee's CO. He was a heart-broken father in that moment. His jaw worked soundlessly before he finally bit out one word, "Enough."

'Enough,' that one word said it all. Enough of a loss in dexterity to do the one thing most pilots feared more than a crash, more than the Cylons, even more than death. "I just signed off on the paperwork before I called you." He scowled and continued, "Captain Adama has been grounded for life."

She jumped off the couch and nearly made it to the hatch before Adama's voice stopped her. "Kara, there's more."

She turned to him with failing restraint sir. "Sir… please, Lee needs…" She trailed off and looked down at her boots with a touch of shame at how she was going to finish that sentence. It was true though, Lee needed her right now and these three were keeping her from him.

Tyrol spoke next, "A couple of hours ago, I'm assuming after he left Sickbay, Ap- Captain Adama came onto the flight deck and pulled me aside. He took a few jars of 'solvent' and left in a pretty dark mood."

Helo nodded and picked up the story, "I was in the Ready Room helping adjust the flight schedule when he came in and asked me to leave. I spread the word to the other Pilots to keep people away until we could get the situation under control quietly but he's been in there over an hour and I imagine he'll be pretty drunk by now."

She took the information in quietly while the Admiral got to his feet and crossed the room to her then gripped her shoulder gently. He spoke in a whisper, "Take care of him Kara, I'm pretty sure you're the only one who can right now." He stepped back and cleared his throat, "I'll be coming down to the Ready Room at O-five-thirty to check the updated flight schedule, understood?"

"Yes sir." She took a deep breath and steeled herself for her mission, "Permission to be excused?"

He nodded, "Dismissed, Captain." She was out of the hatch in a flash and practically sprinting through the corridors to the Ready Room. She wondered for a moment what she must have looked like sprinting down the halls in her blues like they'd just gone to Action Stations, but it was quickly gone from her mind as she skidded to a halt in front of the Ready Room hatch.

She paused to catch her breath and listen for Lee inside. She could vaguely hear drunken humming. She pulled the hatch open and heard it more clearly; Lee was singing something that sounded like an old pub song from the Academy. She stepped in carefully and pulled the hatch closed behind her before dogging it.

She stepped further into the room and found Lee sitting on the floor his back against the podium, a jar of Galactica's Finest held in his hand, an empty jar by his foot and two more sitting on the podium. His hair was disheveled, his uniform was sloppy and his face was flushed as he sang to himself, he was either horribly off-key or singing the lyrics to the wrong tune.

He was drunk off his ass.

Despite the situation, she felt a smile tug at her lips as he turned glassy blue eyes on her. A wide, drunken smile lit up his face and he yelled, "Heyyy Starrbuck! Howzit goin'?" She had to admit, she'd always found him rather cute when he was drunk.

She crossed the room with what she hoped was her most sympathetic expression and took a seat in the front row of chairs, "Hey Lee, you okay?"

He grinned the kind of grin only a drunken person would find reassuring and said, "Sure, I'm jus' celebrating."

She frowned slightly, "What are you celebrating?"

He held up a pair of wings, his wings. They were still clinging to some shredded blue fabric, like he'd torn the pin off his chest, "The death ov Apollo!" As though it was a toast, he knocked back a large portion of the jar and continued, "May he res' in peace."

"Lee."

He lurched to his feet and staggered into the seat next to her, a splash of hooch in his wake, "Nonono… It's good Shtarbuck, it'z really good. I figured it all out." He grinned and took another long drink, "I'll reshign from the Fleet an' work on Cloud Nine."

She was trying to be sympathetic but the grin on her face was begging her to ask, "What will you be on Cloud Nine, Lee?"

He leaned in and gestured for her to do the same, "A stripper."

He waggled his eyebrows and she couldn't help but let loose with loud barking laughter. He held the jar out to her and she took a small drink before handing it back. "Lee, it's not-"

He snorted, "Yessit is." He shifted gears from giddy to morose so fast she was a little bit shocked, "Flying ish all I'm good at, the only thing I don't frak up."

"That's not true, Lee."

He scowled and seemed to sober before her eyes, "The frak it isn't! I was a petty and vindictive son, a pompous brother and the less said about how I treat you, the better. I got what was coming to me."

She watched him scowl at the wings in his hand before he got unsteadily to his feet. He drank down the remains of the jar then smashed it down on the podium before grabbing the other two. His wings clattered to the deck. She looked up in time to see Lee yanking the wheel of the hatch and pulling it open before he disappeared into the corridor.

She jumped to her feet before snatching up his wings and chasing after him. She found him at an intersection between corridors, clearly unsure where to go. She stopped next to him, "What's wrong?"

He turned to her with a confused frown, "I don't know where to go."

Her heart broke for him, "Lee, we'll figure this out, I promise. You could teach basic flight on Pegasus, Kat and Showboat can do the practical stuff."

He shook his head as he pried the lid from one of the jars, "Nooooo, I mean I don't know where my quartersh are now."

She shook her head, "Lee, the Senior Pilots' Bunk is where it's always been."

His voice was cold and his expression locked down hard, "I'm not a pilot anymore Starbuck."

"Apollo-" It was the wrong thing to call him that and she knew it almost as soon as she pronounced the first "o."

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

She felt her temper come loose and it took a lot of will power not to knock him on his drunken ass. Instead she locked an iron grip on his forearm and turned towards the CAG's office across from the ready room. She pushed the hatch open and chucked him inside. He stumbled to the deck, and by some miracle the two jars of liquor were unscathed. He rolled over and faced her with a shocked expression.

"I've had it! You think this is easy for your pilots? Or your father? Hmm? Do you think tomorrow when I tell the pilots that their CAG is grounded for life that they'll throw a party? 'Apollo's gone! Yay!' God's Dammit, Lee! Right now the Old Man is brooding in his cabin, because he had to sign off on the orders to ground you! Helo busted his ass to make sure none of the pilots found you trashed in the ready room and he and the Chief are trying to make sure that some gossip hasn't already told everyone. All so you can sit there and try to get used to reality before you have to deal with sympathetic faces!"

She was towering over him now, her fist white-knuckled and an angry flush scorching her cheeks. "Gods, you are so frakking dense! Let me spell it out for you. You. Are. Not. Alone! Your career is not over! Your life is not over! We will figure this out, because you are too important to me to let you fade into nothingness, and you are too frakking petulant for your own good!"

He frowned in confusion, "So, what? You're ordering me to cheer up?"

Her eyes were narrowing to slits and she was fighting very hard not to throttle him. "Yes! In fact, I am! So cheer the frak up before I snap your neck!"

"What's it matter, anyway?" He got to his feet and crashed down again when she shoved him hard into the wall. "What the hell, Kara!"

"Do I have your attention yet, Captain?"

"You're kicking my ASS!"

She smirked, "Lee, we both know if I wanted to kick your drunk ass, you'd be out cold with your eye swelling shut by now. I tried being nice, I tried being the understanding friend with the sympathetic ear, but you weren't having any of that. So now, we do this my way, now I beat this melancholy out of you and pound some understanding in."

He gave her a scowl that must have been in his DNA, 'cause it looked so much like the Admiral's, Zak often gave her the same scowl when they were together. For just a moment she grinned as she imagined Bill Adama sitting his boys down and teaching them that look. "What am I supposed to do, Kara? The only thing I'm qualified for is piloting." He slowly got to his feet and sat down in a nearby chair.

She smiled and dragged a chair over then sat down in front of him, their knees brushing slightly. "Lee, you were valedictorian in the Academy and flight school, not to mention two degrees from War College in Ops-Planning and Tactical Warfare. You always knew that at some point you'd have to stop flying."

She reached out and took his hand, "My guess is that the Admiral will assign you as Tactical officer and start grooming you to take over the XO position on Pegasus or Galactica when you fully return to active duty. Gaeta's good, but he was Flight Ops not Combat Ops before the attacks. You're a natural leader Lee. You just need experience."

She could now see her words were making their way into his foggy mind. He shrugged, "I kinda figure I'd do something like that. It's just…" He broke their eye contact and twisted his hands in his lap.

She nodded, "I know." Silence settled over them, their knees brushing and her trying to keep from reaching out and lacing her fingers through his. Zak had told her once a long time ago that when Bill was divorcing Caroline that Lee took it very hard, Zak had said that he grew up overnight and became very serious. He also seemed to avoid talking when he was hurt, so Zak took that to heart. He would just sit with Lee in silence hoping just his presence would be enough to help his brother.

Kara decided that right now, if Zak were here, he'd tell her it was best to just sit with Lee.

She was pretty sure about ten minutes had silently passed when she couldn't take it any more. "Y'know, there are some benefits to you not being a pilot anymore."

He looked up and she gave him her best impish grin, "Like what?"

She smirked, "Well, you'll probably take over as Senior Officer of the Watch and Three-I-C, since you already outrank Felix. Which means the Old Man could put you in the unused Senior Officer's cabin off D Corridor. No more of Kat's snoring, no more breaking up towel fights between Duck and Hot Dog, no more watching Racetrack make Goo-goo eyes at Helo."

"No more of you parading about in a towel."

She winked, "Hey, I didn't say it'd be all good. While we're on that subject, you aren't the CAG anymore that means you are no longer the direct superior of any pilot, so the frat regs don't apply to you as far as the pilots are concerned."

"Is that an offer, Starbuck?"

"Well, you are madly in love with me, if you'll remember correctly that little comic strip making the rounds, or listen to Cally and Seelix for any length of time. I know it's always been your dream to-" Lee's lips were on hers with a quickness that had her wide-eyed for a moment. She tried to push him away, but her arms mutinied and her eyes fluttered closed to add to the treachery. 'Lords! Why do you have to be a good kisser, Lee?'

It would be easy to pry her mouth from his if it was a sloppy drunken mashing of lips where her teeth pinch her lips and she's overpowered by the stench of homemade liquor. But Lee was kissing her with a practiced ease that was quickly dragging her along for the ride. The last time they had kissed, it had been a frantic affair of her choosing, a desperate attempt to not think of Sam by frakking Lee.

By all rights, this should be the same way. Lee was drunk and upset and in pain, he should be restless with the need to bury it. His hands should be tearing at her uniform to get her free of it but instead they were radiating heat as they gripped her knees firmly. Her hands stuttered out of her lap and settled on his face, cupping his cheeks.

She finally managed to pull back from his mouth with a pop; she gave him two quick kisses then pulled away. "I think that's enough for tonight. You've had two jars of Galactica's Finest, so it's even money that you'll either pass out or puke on me and-"

He grinned, "You'd kill me if I did either."

She nodded, got to her feet then said. "Why don't you crash on the couch tonight, I'll clear the bunk room in the morning and you can get your stuff before the Old Man gives you a bunk assignment." He nodded and started pulling off his shoes. She picked up the jars and sat them on her desk then turned to him.

He got to his feet and shrugged off his tunic then slumped onto the couch, it didn't really surprise her that he dropped almost immediately off to sleep.

Kara shook her head and quietly slipped out of the office, pulling the hatch shut behind her. She made her way to her bunk room and found Karl pinning his new rank on his flight suit, "Hey, how is he?"

She shrugged, "Sleepy time on the couch in my office." When she stuffed her hands into her pockets she felt Lee's wings stick her finger. She pulled them out and sat them on the table.

Karl looked at them but didn't comment, just placed his flight suit back in his closet, then grabbed his shower kit and towel. He slung his towel over his shoulder then walked out and gave her shoulder a squeeze as he passed her.

She got to her feet and pulled off her uniform and hung it up in her closet then slid into bed and pulled her curtain shut and went to sleep.

She woke the next morning at reveille and grabbed her things to get the day under way.

The morning pilot briefing was painful as she had to make the announcement about Lee, and the pilots were rather angry about the whole thing.

She then had a meeting with the Admiral and Helo about the flight schedule. That meeting truly annoyed the frak out of her as she'd arrived late because of a question Hot Dog had and it seemed like Karl and the Old Man were sharing some sort of joke between them the whole time. Two hours later she walked out of the Admiral's cabin with an annoyed frown.

She returned to the bunk room just before lunch to find it empty, it was the perfect opportunity for Lee to clear out his things. She was about to pick up the phone and page him when she glanced towards his rack and noticed it was already cleaned out. She walked over to his bunk and finally noticed the slip of paper on the pillow. She picked it up and read it.

She chuckled at the hand written letterhead, "_From the desk of **Major** Lee Adama, Tactical Officer Battlestar Galactica._" She sighed, he'd made sure she couldn't help but notice his promotion. The note was short;

_"Kara,  
"Thank you for last night. I took my wings back, thanks for grabbing them. I'll be in CIC all day learning my new job from Gaeta and Colonel Tigh. You were right, I've been promoted and I'm now 3IC.  
"--Lee "PS-- I outrank you again!"_

She shook her head as she folded the note and placed it in her locker, "What an asshole."

**Epilogue: Starbuck is Dead Too.**

Lee Adama was reading through Baltar's "suggestions" for reassignment to that mudball they were calling New Caprica. Pegasus had found the planet during the Rescue Op to the Colonies. Shortly after Lee took command of Pegasus, Kara had come to them with a proposal for a rescue op using the FTL from one of the Heavy Raiders they had to link up about twenty raptors which would cut the trip down to ten jumps.

As she was going through the proposal, Lee one-upped her by hitting on the idea of rigging the Cylon FTL to the Pegasus itself, having the Pegasus jump to Ragnar and not only gather survivors from Caprica but all Twelve Colonies and repair parts. With Pegasus and her vipers for support the raptors would run a better chance of success and the range of the Pegasus FTL would dwindle the number of jumps to four.

It took almost six weeks for Laird and the engineers to figure out how to get their FTL to talk to the Cylon FTL, which allowed them to adjust the crews and bring Sharon over to troubleshoot the link. The Admiral had asked for volunteers and though ninety percent of both crews and nearly every pilot volunteered, it took a while to shuffle the crew around to Lee's satisfaction.

They'd jumped away from the fleet a month prior to the elections. The first planet they attempted rescue on was Caprica, the rescue went poorly. The team got cut off from the raptors and the Cylons were hailing anti-aircraft fire over the landing area. Lee had just been about to order the Pegasus to jump in, collect the teams and scrub the mission when Racetrack reported that firing had stopped.

Lee ordered the jump to Caprica orbit to collect the teams. The DRADIS was clear and they no signs of any resistance from the Cylons so he ordered the teams back. He, Taylor and Kara had decided to continue with the operation only with the Pegasus providing cover. When all was said and done nineteen days later, they'd hit every colony and gathered almost three-thousand people (most notably three hundred and fifty members of the Fleet) and the amount of supplies gathered was so much that it was an overcrowded Battlestar that jumped away.

Lee had spent most of his time during the Operations in CIC, not only because they spent twenty hours a day at Condition One, but his cabin had half of Red Squadron bunking there. Kara teased him mercilessly the whole time, she'd been flying with Red Flight and she'd offered on numerous occasions her and Showboat's services for sponge-baths.

On the second jump back to the Fleet there had been a miscalculation. They jumped into orbit around a planet deep within a dense nebula, their scans showed a harsh but habitable environment and that the DRADIS interference within the nebula would allow them to hide indefinitely.

When they returned with the survivors and news of the planet, the fleet decided to jump into orbit of the planet in the hopes of gathering supplies. Baltar then used the planet as an issue to win the election on a campaign promise of giving up the search for Earth and settling on the planet.

Baltar won the election and now was in the process of settling the people below. Up to and including gutting the crews of the Battlestars, and as he read through the suggestions he was beginning to suspect Baltar had an ulterior motive of weakening the Old Man, like the Admiral was some sort of political rival and not the commander of the military.

Half of their pilots were being forced into inactive reserve, as well as two thirds of the medical staff and many of the most experienced officers and enlisted. Most notable of the forced resignations were; Gaeta, Narcho, Hot Dog, his XO Colonel Taylor, the Chief, Doc Cottle and Cally. Baltar had also ordered that until further notice they could not train any more pilots, he went so far as to abolish Kara's Flight Instructor post.

If that weren't enough many officers were volunteering to resign their posts, there was a note at the bottom of his orders from his father that summed up the situation well. "_This will get much worse._" At the rate Baltar was going, by the time they'd been at New Caprica six months the battlestars would barely have enough manpower to keep them in the air under normal circumstances, Gods forbid they suffered a Cylon attack.

The sound of hydraulics broke Lee from his musing and he looked towards his hatch to find a surprise. Sam Anders was standing at his door, "May I come in?"

Lee held out his hand to gesture at the leather chair next to the couch he occupied. "What brings you by Mr. Anders?"

The former Pyramid player sat down and looked around the cabin before saying. "I… uh… I've decided to head to the planet and help settle down there. I had been talking with Helo and Kara about signing up for Basic Flight but…"

Lee nodded, "Kara mentioned that you'd been considering that, but the President has decided the need for settlers is more important than the need for pilots."

He grinned, "Kara didn't put it that way."

Lee laughed, "Let me guess, 'Dr. Batshit is just plain frakking nuts if he doesn't think the Cylons are coming back.'"

"Pretty much, but I wanted to talk to you before I went planet-side. I know that we haven't gotten along too well, I had hoped that when your people rescued us I could have explored something with Kara and I've been more than a little jealous." They shared a tight expression before Sam continued, "But I do owe you my life. It was your idea to bring this ship and who knows if they'd been able to save us otherwise." He got to his feet and Lee followed suit. Sam stuck out his hand, "Thanks."

Lee was a little shocked, Sam had confronted him outside of CIC about a week after they got back to the fleet and accused the officer of stealing his girl and it might have come to blows were it not for the two marines posted outside Pegasus' command center. Now he's thanking him, "Not a problem Sam."

The larger man nodded as Lee shook his hand, but held on. "Take care of her okay. She's something special."

"Well, Kara's not one for being taken care of, but I fully intend to." Sam released his grip and took a step for the door, "Sam? If Baltar ever pulls his head out of his ass, call me and I'll see about getting you a shot at Basic Flight." The man nodded then disappeared through the hatch.

Lee was just settling into his paperwork again when he heard the hatch close again. Suddenly the papers were yanked out of his hand and tossed onto the coffee table as Kara plopped down into his lap with a self-satisfied smirk. "Hey baby." She then gave him a brief kiss.

He wrapped his arms around her and settled back into the soft leather couch, contentment settling over him. "I was just talking about you."

She winked, "Of course you were." She made a show of searching the room, "You know Lee, people generally stop having imaginary friends around the age of six."

He narrowed his eyes at her, "Brat. Sam stopped by before he took the next shuttle down, I guess he wanted to bury the hatchet before he went down." They sat for a while before Lee grinned at her. "So why are you in such a good mood?"

She smirked, "I just got dishonorably discharged."

"WHAT?"

She laughed, "I struck the Superior Asshole of all Superior Assholes."

"You didn't!"

She nodded, "I did. He was on the Galactica to personally inform me that with the Fleet at Condition Four we had no need for new pilots or a CAP so my duties would soon no longer be required. He said he expected me on the surface in six months so I laid him out."

"Kara I-" He shook his head, his brain on the brink of a meltdown, "Shouldn't you be in the brig?"

"Oh, I am. The Old Man had Helo take me to the brig on Pegasus, if anyone asks, I'm there now. It won't be so bad, the Admiral says that I can stay here with you indefinitely. My dishonorable is punishment enough, and he can't really do anything to me since it's a military matter. I can be your kept woman, 'The Commander's Bitch' was the term Racetrack and Helo agreed upon on the ride over. It'll be fun, then in a few months, when Batshit isn't paying attention anymore we'll quietly reinstate my commission. As for the moment," She stroked his chest gently and purred, "Helo says you should punish me for being naughty."

Her husky voice combined with the word naughty had a profound affect on Lee, "And how should I punish a naughty girl like you?"

She leaned down and captured his lips with hers. After a series of long, scorching kisses she pulled away and whispered, "Take me to bed."

He nodded, "Try not to sound so eager Kara, it's supposed to be a punishment." He then got off the couch and hoisted her into his arms.

She waggled her eyebrows, "Justice is a passion of mine Lee. You know that."

"I'll show you justice!" He shifted her until she was over his shoulder and carried her off to his bed.

For the moment at least, Starbuck and Apollo were dead, but that wasn't such a bad thing in the end.

**End**


End file.
